The imperial tour begins…

We are finally leave San Jose today, though we are on a bus tour and so will be kept to main sites, a Potemkin Village tour. Today it is a volcano, a coffee plantation, butterflies, a city tour (again) and home.

We like to lay low when we travel, or as one travel agent advised us years ago, “try not to be Americans.” We should be polite, reserved, respectful and low key, show interest in their customs, and avoid the main tourist sites if possible, and yet not be intrusive and trample on private areas. On a bus tour, however, we will only deal with other Americans and the tourist interface. Our traveling companions are indeed an aging set, so there’ll be nothing athletic going on beyond getting on and off the bus.

A commenter noted in the post below that even though Costa Rica does not have a military, it did accommodate the CIA’s secret army during the Central American wars of the Reagan era, allowing its land to be used for running drugs and weapons in and out of the country. That is the Faustian deal any colonial state must strike to survive. On the Columbian portion of our city tour two days ago, I asked the guide if the President of Costa Rica had been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for attempting to broker a deal as the US attacked Nicaragua from the surrounding countries. Yes indeed, he said, though his memory was not fresh in the matter.

This shows the bankruptcy of the Nobel Peace Prize, never to attain anything higher, and sinking to historical low when awarded to a certain Mr. Obama for having done nothing while planning yet more war.

Internet is crappy here today, cannot insert photos. The hotel is full, so the strain on the system is showing. Might not be able to even publish this.